Early Risers.

[tigerburnie]

30 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

A school friend had a red chevette at the time Prince brought out Little Red Chevette 😎

errrrr...............it was a Red Corvette and I still prefer the exhaust note on the Aston Martin V8

[Tony_S]

34 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

A school friend had a red chevette at the time Prince brought out Little Red Chevette 😎

Prince’s song wasn’t really about a car!

[monkeysarefun]

30 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 And some of the pics are so obscure that you can't be sure of what they are of. And why does it always have to be American traffic lights, fire hydrants etc.?

 

 

I don't know why they cant  use   trivia questions, say just simple general knowledge ones -  that way those who didn't know the answer could google it and learn something educational  from the process. And you could include ones like "What weighs more - a kg of feathers or a kg of bricks?" to keep the stupid people from getting onto your website and annoying you when they inevitably get their orders wrong.

Edited February 14 by monkeysarefun

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

All because of ULEZ, compliant cars are now worth their weight in gold.

 

That really surprises me - sounds like someone is exploiting the credulity of the motoring public. My 13-year-old Zafira is ULEZ compliant, as is pretty well any petrol car of the last twenty years.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Only one call-out from bladder control but Arthur Itis was doing a rain dance. At least the knee supports stayed in place. It's too damp to venture out so I'll have to find something to do indoors.

[monkeysarefun]

20 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Prince’s song wasn’t really about a car!

 

 

I did recently watch "The Cruel Sea" and did think that it would have been a nice touch if Dennis Sinden and Jack  Hawkins had led the crew in  a rousing rendition of "Little Red Corvette"  at some point, maybe that bit  when they got sunk. (spoiler alert)

Edited February 14 by monkeysarefun

[Flanged Wheel]

On capital punishment, the court martial has some very interesting examples (Admiral Byng being an obvious choice). One of the more remarkable comes from HMS Gloucester in 1699. Three sailors were convicted of desertion but the court decided that only one of them needed to be hanged. In order to determine which poor unfortunate was chosen, they rolled a die. The sentence of the court for the other two was “Death reprieved, on the throw of a die, only one to die”. I haven’t been able to find any other examples of this happening but it has shades of the Roman practice of decimation. The full record can be found at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10064712.

 

Knowing the love that followers of this thread have for small furry creatures, I thought I’d share a picture of our neighbour in the Bornean rainforest. He/She lived in a tree about 5 metres from the open shelter that we were staying in. I have no idea if the species is poisonous and preferred not to ask. If you don’t know, it can’t kill you… right?!

 

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That really surprises me - sounds like someone is exploiting the credulity of the motoring public. My 13-year-old Zafira is ULEZ compliant, as is pretty well any petrol car of the last twenty years.

My petrol car is 16 years old and compliant. The OP was referring to diesel cars of which only those less than ten years old with a few exceptions are compliant. ULEZ has been a money-spinner for Mayor Khan, money which he has used to freeze fares and improve TfL services. This has p!ssed off the opposition big time as ULEZ was their idea in the first place. Not all roads into the ULEZ area have the warning notices as the local authority has refused permission to erect them, primarily for political reasons. The same roads are the ones that generate the most income for ULEZ.

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Then to rub it in  it made me click on the box saying I wasn't a robot. I assume it asked me that because only a robot would have diligently spent half the evening clicking on "crosswalks", bicycles and bloody buses, actual people would have hurled their laptop through the window.

 

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

I don't know why they cant have questions, just simple general knowledge ones -  that way those who didn't know the answer could google it and learn something from the process. And you could include ones like "What weighs more - a kg of feathers or a kg of bricks?" to keep the stupid people from getting onto your website and annoying you by getting their orders wrong.

They probably will evolve. Machine intelligence algorithms can defeat many tests so they will have to get harder, or become sillier. AI humour recognition next. 

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Flanged Wheel said:

On capital punishment, the court martial has some very interesting examples (Admiral Byng being an obvious choice). One of the more remarkable comes from HMS Gloucester in 1699. Three sailors were convicted of desertion but the court decided that only one of them needed to be hanged. In order to determine which poor unfortunate was chosen, they rolled a die. The sentence of the court for the other two was “Death reprieved, on the throw of a die, only one to die”. I haven’t been able to find any other examples of this happening but it has shades of the Roman practice of decimation. The full record can be found at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10064712.

 

Knowing the love that followers of this thread have for small furry creatures, I thought I’d share a picture of our neighbour in the Bornean rainforest. He/She lived in a tree about 5 metres from the open shelter that we were staying in. I have no idea if the species is poisonous and preferred not to ask. If you don’t know, it can’t kill you… right?!

 

 

 

It looks like a Bornean Tarantula. 

 

Harmless ( unless you are a bird)

 

Its similar to our Australian Tarantula / Bird-eating Spider that grows to about 7 inch leg span - You can buy one for $70  though @polybearprobably wouldn't 

 

https://www.amazingamazon.com.au/products/australian-tarantula-html

Edited February 14 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Flanged Wheel said:

On capital punishment, the court martial has some very interesting examples (Admiral Byng being an obvious choice). One of the more remarkable comes from HMS Gloucester in 1699. Three sailors were convicted of desertion but the court decided that only one of them needed to be hanged. In order to determine which poor unfortunate was chosen, they rolled a die. The sentence of the court for the other two was “Death reprieved, on the throw of a die, only one to die”. I haven’t been able to find any other examples of this happening

 

 

 

In the Stanley Kubrick movie "Paths Of Glory" 100 French soldiers are sentenced to die for cowardice after refusing to go on a suicidal mission , the number  is whittled down to three chosen at random.  (OK, one is chosen at random the other two are chosen because the commanding officers don't like them).

 

The execution at the end is a powerful bit of cinema, though the marching does go on a bit long and I have to say I was glad when the bloke doing the annoying crying finally met his end, but it highlights the criminality of sending soldiers to the firing squad for refusing to follow ridiculous orders and makes me glad that the Australian Government refused to allow any  of the 129 Australian ANZACS that had been  sentenced to death by a  British Army Court martial  to be executed,  no matter how much General Haig had  a whinge about it.

 

 

Edited February 14 by monkeysarefun

[Grizz]

And for those who forgot ‘V Day’…..

 

 

Genius! 🤣….

 

Although if I pulled that stunt I wouldn’t be back on the 15th, no way. It’s gotta be worth at least a week. 

[PhilJ W]

Happy birthday @SM42

[Grizz]

52 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

I did recently watch "The Cruel Sea" and did think that it would have been a nice touch if Dennis Sinden and Jack  Hawkins had led the crew in  a rousing rendition of "Little Red Corvette"  at some point, maybe that bit  when they got sunk. (spoiler alert)

Mmmmmm but in comparison with the original tune ‘Little Red Corvette’’ is a bit raucous, they might have spilt their Coco…..

 

[Grizz]

41 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

It looks like a Bornean Tarantula. 

 

Harmless ( unless you are a bird)

Now when you say bird, you are not talking about a ‘Sheila’ are you? 

[monkeysarefun]

37 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Now when you say bird, you are not talking about a ‘Sheila’ are you? 

 

Actually..... the only place i've heard what we always call  "Sweet damsels"  or "fairest Maidens" referred to as "Birds",  is in English sitcoms  like Robins Nest or On The Buses or Are You Being Served... 

 

No, when they are called Bird Eating Spiders, its because they ARE bird eating spiders:

 

 

(We've  also got mouse eating spiders but they aren't called that.)

 

[jjb1970]

This is why Australian customs worry about foreign animals and bugs entering the country. I've always been impressed by their obvious humanity in being determined to spare visiting critters from being savaged by the native carnivores. It gives me hope for the goodness of humankind.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That really surprises me - sounds like someone is exploiting the credulity of the motoring public. My 13-year-old Zafira is ULEZ compliant, as is pretty well any petrol car of the last twenty years.

Absolutely. The Little Red Driving Box is 14 years old and fully compliant. 
 

It’s the diesels which are not. And a lot of people bought diesels when that was cheaper than petrol. 
 

Some of those are now regretting that choice. 

[monkeysarefun]

13 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

This is why Australian customs worry about foreign animals and bugs entering the country. I've always been impressed by their obvious humanity in being determined to spare visiting critters from being savaged by the native carnivores. It gives me hope for the goodness of humankind.

 

 

It can seem a bit over the top but much of our wildlife has a tenuous link between it and extinction and the tiniest upset can be devastating to  species that have evolved down here completely cut off from the rest of the world for millenia. The tiniest imbalance can wipe out a species.

 

 

For instance only this week this story came to light, about a 90 million year old fish species which can be traced back to Gondwanaland,  whose last examples in the Sydney region may have been killed by spill from a school renovation project leaching from  a containment dam and polluting the fishes environment.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/11/sydney-climbing-galaxias-fish-extinction-fears

 

 

 

 

Edited February 14 by monkeysarefun

[Sidecar Racer]

21 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Actually..... the only place i've heard what we always call  "Sweet damsels"  or "fairest Maidens" referred to as "Birds",  is in English sitcoms  like Robins Nest or On The Buses or Are You Being Served... 

 

No, when they are called Bird Eating Spiders, its because they ARE bird eating spiders:

 

 

(We've  also got mouse eating spiders but they aren't called that.)

 

 

 And then there are complaints that domestic cats are killing all the wildlife

while ignoring the itinerant wild population . 

[Sidecar Racer]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the noise they make is *#%$^& awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 It's nice , but would pull several traffic tickets over here  , firstly the red in the head lights ,

a definite no no as red can only be to the rear , green would be okay though probably

yellow too , not sure about blue though , second the degree of window tint and possibly

insufficient silencing , though that is a tougher one to adjudge .

[Grizz]

44 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Actually..... the only place i've heard what we always call  "Sweet damsels"  or "fairest Maidens" referred to as "Birds",  is in English sitcoms  like Robins Nest or On The Buses or Are You Being Served... 

 

No, when they are called Bird Eating Spiders, its because they ARE bird eating spiders:

 

 

(We've  also got mouse eating spiders but they aren't called that.)

 

Woah! Dude they are big! 
 

Don’t think that’ll be showing those photos to Mrs Grizz. She’s not overly keen on our UK domestic varieties spiders, let alone bird or mice eating ones. It is wonderful how nature varied and adapted its responses across the globe. Funny how in the UK bird and mice eating spiders never evolved. 

 

That bird eating one would be the stuff of nightmares around here. Hanging around in trees, yep that’d about do it for me and I generally really quite like spiders. Actually now I come to think of it jumping spiders are my favourite. We have a bunch of grey, white and black coloured little ones that live on and around the brickwork on the south elevation of the castle. They vary from about 4mm up to about 12mm or so. 
 

Now Mosquitoes, flies and wasps. Especially mosquitoes and wasps. Don’t get me started on them. 
Suffice to say that, with limitless resources at my disposal, they are where I would be focusing my new found hobby of genetically eradicating their nasty little habits out of them. 
 

Mosquitoes are the delivery device for the suffering and death for millions of creatures and as for wasps…..let see how the stripe little bar stewards get along without the ability to repeatedly sting people without provocation. Let’s see how they get on in the world just eating aphids without the over the top weaponry. 
 

Speckt that you’ve probably got some big old killer monster types of skeetoes and wasps lurking somewhere down there? 
 

 

Edited February 14 by Grizz
Auto correct….as usual

[Hroth]

8 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 It's nice , but would pull several traffic tickets over here  , firstly the red in the head lights ,

a definite no no as red can only be to the rear , green would be okay though probably

yellow too , not sure about blue though , second the degree of window tint and possibly

insufficient silencing , though that is a tougher one to adjudge .

 

The lack of silencing is cheap and easy to determine...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233973648478

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 It's nice , but would pull several traffic tickets over here  , firstly the red in the head lights ,

a definite no no as red can only be to the rear , green would be okay though probably

yellow too , not sure about blue though , second the degree of window tint and possibly

insufficient silencing , though that is a tougher one to adjudge .

 

 

I shall get the police onto it directly!

 

 

Hmmmm.

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-pxMu23ls2Y